As far as old school fighting games from the 90’s and early 00’s are concerned there are so many titles that instantly comes to mind. Retro gamers often remember titles such as the Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Killer Instinct and King of Fighters series from back in the day. Despite, how popular each of those franchises were there were games such as the Bloody Roar series which began back in back in 1997 on the Sony PlayStation which are considered to be highly underrated especially since they were overshadowed during the 90’s-early 00’s. In fact, the Bloody Roar series definitely had strong fan base especially since it was quite unique in relation to gameplay such as the “Beast Mode” mechanic and eventually “Beast Drive” in Blood Roar 2 which was released back in ’99. As far as the overall appeal of the series is concerned many would argue that Bloody Roar 2 was arguably the last strong entry despite there being three more games that came afterwards between 2000-2003. The latest entry in the set known as Bloody Roar 4 came out about sixteen years ago and since then there has been no indication of the possibility of a new game especially since Hudson Soft became defunct back in 2012.

While video game developer Eighting has worked on just about every Bloody Roar title within the series Konami was the publisher for Bloody Roar 4 which appeared on the PlayStation 2 between late 2003-early 2004. Even though, Konami is still a major publisher within the gaming industry today its unlikely that they have any plans on bringing back the Bloody Roar series. Bloody Roar 4 was nowhere near as popular as the first two games that came out between ’97-’99. In fact, some would argue with the notion that a new Bloody Roar game is not necessary but the idea of having HD releases if each title within the series would be something that would definitely turn heads within the gaming world. Despite, the fact that the fighting genre of gaming is not quite as popular today as it was during the 90’s a new project or release involving the Bloody Roar series could definitely be somewhat of an attraction anytime from 2020 onwards. But as it currently stands the idea of a new Bloody Roar game is one that seems unlikely to happen anytime in the near future.

When we think about classic platform titles of the early 90’s that appeared during the 16-bit era of gaming one of the few names that instantly comes to mind is Donkey Kong Country. For those who do not know Donkey Kong Country was developed by Rare and published by Nintendo when it was initially released in November 1994. Donkey Kong Country was the first major game within the series to appear on a home based console during the 90’s. While Donkey Kong had first became very popular on the NES similar to characters such Mario & Link during the 80’s it seemed like the Country series stood out more. Donkey Kong Country had realistic characters sprites and a basic plot which involved a bunch of bananas being stolen by Kremlings. Players have to compete various stages while encountering numerous adversaries while controlling Donkey or Diddy Kong as they progress through 40 different levels within the game. One of the coolest features that Donkey Kong Country had was the multiplayer co-op mode which was similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & 3 where one player got to be Sonic and other was Tails. The co-op two player mode in some ways made Donkey Kong Country better than older Mario games from the 80’s and Super Mario World to a degree as far as gameplay is concerned.

As far as overall success is concerned Donkey Kong Country managed to sell over 9.3 million units worldwide and ended up becoming the third best selling game for the Super NES during the 90’s. In fact, Donkey Kong Country ended up becoming the third best selling game for Nintendo’s 16-bit console while being surpassed by Super Mario World & Super Mario All-Stars. Donkey Kong Country was a title that spawned two SNES sequels which were both released between ’95-’96 and were largely successful as well. Despite, its release approximately 24 years ago Donkey Kong Country is a game worth playing for those who never had a chance to do so. As a 2D platformer Donkey Kong Country looked like it was ahead of its time following its release in 1994.

As far as retro RPG’s are concerned in relation to the Nintendo Entertainment System there have been several memorable titles from the 80’s and early 90’s. We got to see 8 bit RPG games such as Dragon Quest I-IV and Final Fantasy I-III between the ’86-’90 which were arguably more popular in Japan opposed to America. However, a game like Crystalis is never really mentioned in the same light as that if the Final Fantasy series despite the fact that its considered to be a cult classic by various gamers. In fact Crystalis is one of the most recognizable RPG titles that SNK has ever made and was released for the NES the same year the Neo Geo AES came out in Japan. Crystalis was considered to be a action-adventure/action role-playing game with a basic plot yet interesting involving an unnamed protagonist. The main character who awakes from a deep sleep makes some startling discoveries such as his presence being the key from saving humanity from destruction despite not remembering anything including his own identity. As far as the setting and the background for the game is concerned the idea of a fictional nuclear occurring in 1997 was one that was intriguing especially considering the fact that the game itself was released in 1990.

While the storyline, soundtrack and visuals for Crystalis were considered to be strong positives there are some people who would probably argue that the game could have been a masterpiece if it had better graphics. If Crystalis were released for the 16-bit Super Nintendo console which also came out in 1990 the game could have ended up becoming more popular than it was especially considering the fact that the NES was starting to get old during the early 90’s. Also, SNK is well known for their fighting games from the early 90’s such as Art Of Fighting, Fatal Fury and the King Of Fighters series. Crystalis was definitely a solid RPG title for its time and eventually ended up appearing on console such as Game Boy Color in ’00 and even the Nintendo Switch this past year in 2018 with different developers and publishers being involved in each respective port. While Nintendo Software Technology developed the Game Boy Color version Digital Eclipse worked on the Switch version with NIS America being the publisher. Seeing how popular if a RPG Crystalis was and still is today its surprising that the game never received a direct sequel on over 28 yearS since its release.

As far as retro sports related games are concerned relation to the 90’s one of the few games from that time period that is com to be highly underrated Windjammers. For those who do not know Windjammers was initially created by a now defunct video game developer known as Data East and has had various publishers since its arcade release back in ’94. Windjammers had been ported for mainly SNK developed consoles such as Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo CD back in the 90’s. As many people know the Neo Geo AES was very expensive at the price $649.00 following its release in the early and did not sell as much which may be one of the reasons why many people never heard of Windjammers at all. Windjammers was a 2D game that resembled ultimate frisbee where players have to stop their opponents offensive throws from entering their goal zone. The game provides players layers with six playable characters to choose from all with their own unique set of stats with each having certain strengths and weaknesses.

Windjammers provides players with the option of competing against other players or against the CPU. The difficulty of the game increases after players defeat CPU controlled characters which made Windjammers more interesting. Windjammers was a Neo Geo classic that was considered to be both underrated and popular back in the day and has recently been ported to current generation consoles such as the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch. As it currently stands we are still waiting for the official release of DotEmu’s Windjammers 2 which is expected to occur sometime before 2020.

As far as beat em up classics from the 90’s are concerned one of the most popular titles that we got to see back in the day was the Streets Of Rage from 1991. The original Streets Of Rage game was developed and published by Sega and was one that competed with Nintendo’s Final Fight series back in the early 90’s. As far as quality and overall lasting appeal is concerned many people would argue that it was not quite as popular as its ’92 successor Streets Of Rage II. Unlike, sequel the original Streets Of Rage game had 8-bit like graphics that looked that looked inferior but nonetheless had a basic but interesting storyline. Players have the option of choosing three ex-police officers Adam, Blaze Fielding and Axel Stone in order to combat chaos in a unnamed city taken over by criminal syndicate lead by Mr. X. One of the most memorable aspects that Sega presented in Streets Of Rage was its soundtrack which was produced by the legendary Yuzo Koshiro. There were songs such as Fighting In The Street, Moon Beach, Violent Breathing that were included in certain stages and added life to the game itself and are still somewhat popular to this day.

Also, the fact that Street Of Rage had included multiple endings was something that added to the game’s overall replay value. The original Streets Of Rage game gave players the option of defeating Mr. X towards the end versus having both players fight against each other within its co-op mode. If the player who joins Mr. X defeats the one who does not they get the bad ending. The player who refused to join the crime syndicate had to defeat the disloyal protagonist along with Mr. X in the end thus making the good ending even more difficult to achieve. In fact, as players progress towards the end of the game each became increasingly more difficult which made Streets Of Rage a more exciting beat em up title altogether. As far as Mega Drive classics are concerned Streets Of Rage is a title that within the top ten of many people’s list in relation to 16-bit games from the early 90’s.

As many people already know Trials Of Mana was announced early this year for a release sometime during the first half of 2020. Trials Of Mana is basically the high definition remake of the 16-bit SNES JRPG classic known as Seiken Densetsu 3 which came out exclusively in Japan in 1995. Seiken Densetsu 3 was considered to be the direct sequel to the critically acclaimed Secret Of Mana game from 1993 and was considered to be one of the greatest action role-playing games of the 16-bit era to have never been released in America during the 90’s. As far as the Secret Of Mana is concerned the game received a high definition remake with the use of 3D graphics and visuals which appeared in Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation 4 back in February 2018. While some people thought that the remake of the classic JRPG was neat retro gamers who were big SNES fans during the 90’s were not too impressed. In fact, the 2D visuals & sprites along with the real-time battles associated with the original 16-bit Secret Of Mana game is what made it very appealing in the first place.

As it currently stands its hard to tell whether or not Trials Of Mana will be a bigger attraction in 2020 than the Secret Of Mana HD Remake this past year . The character and level designs for the Trials Of Mana look amazing and the battle system from the original Seiken Densetsu 3 title has been refined as well with inclusion of bonus objectives prior to battling different enemies in the game. Despite, the Secret Of Mana HD Remake not being well received by many critics its possible that Trials Of Mana could end up becoming more successful in western countries 2020. This especially true considering the fact that a lot people in America never got a chance to play the original 16-bit version of Seiken Densetsu 3 during the 90’s.

As far as classic Sonic games are concerned many people instantly remember the trilogy that appeared on the Sega Genesis between ’91-’94 since they are considered to be the among best in the entire series. A lot of people probably never owned a Game Gear console around the mid 90’s especially considering the fact that the handheld console did not sell as much as Sega had hoped it would. One of the few big titles that appeared on Game Gear was Sonic The Hedgehog: Triple Trouble which was developed by game developer known as Aspect which recently became defunct back in October 2018. Sonic The Hedgehog: Triple Trouble had impressive visuals and an interesting plot which involved collecting all seven of the Chaos Emeralds. Players had the option of choosing either Sonic or Tails as they try to collect the Emeralds before Dr. Robotnik, Knuckles The Echidna and Nack The Weasel who rarely appeared in Sonic games in general and was more popular in comics.

As a side-scrolling platformer many people would argue that Sonic Triple Trouble could have definitely be a bigger attraction on the Sega Genesis. However, it would have been unlikely that Sonic Triple Trouble would have been popular as Sonic The Hedgehog 3 which was also released early in ’94. Also, the world got to see the release of the Sega Saturn in ’94 which is something that definitely overshadowed the release of titles such Sonic Triple Trouble for Game Gear with the Sega Genesis still being somewhat popular between the ’94-’95 time period. Sonic Triple Trouble is quite possibly one of the most underrated installments of the series from the 90’s and could have possibly been more popular than it was on a home console such as the Sega Saturn back in the day.